40 years ago today, we lost NAT "KING" COLE.

[NightTrain]

From the Usenet group, rec.music.rock-pop-r+b.1950s:

Nat Cole had one of the best voices ever comitted to wax. He also usually had a knack of recording the "right" songs for his style and always worked with the very best orchestras (Gordon Jenkins, Nelson Riddle, etc.).

His rise to fame came in the 1940s, first with his King Cole jazz trio that led to such great early sides as "Straighten Up And Fly Right," "(Get Your Kicks On) Route 66," and "The Frim Fram Sauce," before Nat really established himself as a true icon in 1948 with the sublime "Nature Boy", one of the very best songs he ever did and the one that set the template for most of the great ballad performances that came after--the best of which was the incomparable "Mona Lisa" in 1950.

He was hugely popular here in England and I liked most everything I heard by him on radio as a kid. I never knew then that Capitol here were putting out a vastly different selection of singles by him here to those which were gracing radio in the USA. Here, Cole was selling big with non-USA singles such as "Mother Nature Father Time," "Dreams Can Tell A Lie," "Tenderly," and best of all in 1957 another incomparable release--his definitive version of the gorgeous song "When I Fall In Love," a #2 UK hit which Capitol in the USA must have been crazy to pass up for single release!

Into the 1960s, as well as looking for rock 'n' roll and R&B items to add to my growing collection, I always picked up (unheard) any Cole single I came across that I never already owned. I was rarely disappointed!

Yes,I always had a lot of time for Nat Cole who sadly died this day in 1965--and who, along with Sinatra, was just about my favorite "adult pop" artist. Here's my year-by-year favorite songs by him starting with first pop successes in the '40s:

1944

1. Straighten Up And Fly Right
2. Sweet Lorraine
3. Gee Baby Ain't I Good To You

1945

1. The Frim Fram Sauce
2. It's Only A Paper Moon
3. I'm In The Mood For Love

1946.

1. (Get Your Kicks On) Route 66
2. The Christmas Song
3. (I Love You) For Sentimental Reasons

1947

1. Save The Bones For Henry Jones
2. You Call It Madness (But I Call It Love)
3. What'll I Do

1948

1. Nature Boy
2. Lost April
2. Portrait Of Jennie

1949

1. Lush Life
2, These Foolish Things
3. For All We Know

1950

1. Mona Lisa
2. Calypso Blues
3. Orange Colored Sky (with Stan Kenton)

1951

1. Unforgettable
2. Too Young
3. Red Sails In The Sunset

1952

1. Somewhere Along The Way
2. Funny (Not Much)
3. Walkin' My Baby Back Home

1953

1. Pretend
2. I Am In Love
3. My Flaming Heart

1954

1. Smile
2. Answer Me My Love
3. Alone Too Long

1955

1. Autumn Leaves
2. A Blossom Fell
2. If I May

1956

1. That's All There Is To That (with the 4 Knights)
2. Love Me As Though There Were No Tommorrow
3. My Dream Sonata

1957

1. When I Fall In Love
2. Stardust
3. Stay As Sweet As You Are

1958

1. Non Dimenticar
2. Looking Back
3. Do I Like It

1959

1. Midnight Flyer
2. Sweet Bird Of Youth
3. I Must Be Dreaming

1960

1. Just As Much As Ever
2. That's You
3. If I Knew

1961

1. Brazilian Love Song
2. Let True Love Begin
3. Take A Fool's Advice

1962

1. Let There Be Love (with George Shearing)
2. Ramblin' Rose
3. Dear Lonely Hearts

1963

1. That Sunday That Summer
2. But Beautiful
3. Nothing Goes Up (Without Coming Down)

[maveric]

1. He was only 46 when he died.

Way too young!

[candy]

2. I was around in those days. He was great,but I always

hated "Nature Boy",which was very popular.

He knew how to SING and needed no back up at all!

[brook]

8. So was I...

there were a number of clubs in LA where it was possible to go, have a drink and listen to giants like Nat.

[candy]

9. Aaaaah,those smoke filled rooms,dim lights,and everyone

drinking martinis.

Those were the days.

[Hell Hath No Fury]

3. He is my favorite male vocalist, bar none...

His voice was just incredible and his phrasing impeccible. His rendition of "Stardust" gives me goosebumps every time I hear it.

I have a old Nat collection ablum (yes! vinyl!) called "A Blossom Fell" that I will listen to in the early evening when the weather turns cooler in the late fall and the days are shorter -- there is something about the mood it invokes that fits with that season, for me.

Salute, Nat! :toast:

[Erika]

4. Roll on those hazy, crazy, lazy days of summer?

Was his, wasn't it. It was a perfect party time song in the summer.

[supernova]

5. Besides talent out the wazoo

an impeccably classy gentleman too.

RIP, Nat. :cry:

[TNDemo]

6. I saw Natalie Cole in concert this weekend.

She sang the duet with her dad of Unforgettable with a slide show of them during it. She definitely inherited her vocal cords from him as she did a fabulous show. I remember when he died and reading about it in the paper and that my dad was sad about it.

[twenty2strings]

7. Saw video of Cole trio in action...I was impressed...

Really smooth,but really hot...How can you swing that fast and still smile that way? I'd be gruntin'..Oh well,I can dream!:bounce: :toast: :hippie:

[Radio_Lady]

10. I remember the day well...

I was working as an Promotion Assistant at WPIX-TV, Channel 13, in New York City. It was the end of the workday, and I walked outside and saw the bold headline in the New York Post... I sat down at the bus stop and cried.

I'm so glad his daughter was able to move on in her life, even though she had some tough times with and without him.

I love the song "Unforgettable" that she sings with him, posthumously.

Another reason to fight the tobacco industry. I wish there were no such thing as cigarettes. The actor James Woods did a show on the effects of stroke, the third biggest killer. It was on CNN where he said, "We might as well sell arsenic to people!" They estimate that every cigarette smoked takes 11 minutes off a person's life.

[Huckebein the Raven]

11. "Unforgettable" is my favorite song of his